Four epistemic reasons to consult religious traditions

Abstract

In recent years, we can speak of an anti-liberal appropriation of the concepts of religion, tradition, and religious tradition. The label of religious tradition has been used to divide and mobilize voters. With the support of the Russian Orthodox Church, Russian president Vladimir Putin has presented himself as the defender of traditional values against the liberal West (Agadjanian, 2017). In Poland, religious groups have criticized the liberal European project in the name of the Catholic tradition (Szumigalska, 2015). This raises the question of whether and how religious traditions can be addressed in liberal democratic states.In political philosophy and political theory, religion has often been reconstructed with a focus on beliefs (Asad, 2012). According to this notion of religion, belief has primacy over ritual, which has led to a neglect of religion as an embodied way of life that is manifested in individual behavior, in social practices, and in institutions (Mahmood, 2009). This emphasis on the role of religious beliefs has also led to a neglect of the role of religious traditions. Only few authors have argued that appeals to religious traditions can advance a discussion (Asad, 2009; MacIntyre, 1984;Scruton, 1984). During the last years, however, a group of philosophers has begun to re-evaluate the justificatory role